MA programme Curating the Art Museum

Imagining Islands: Artists and Escape

Charles Avery, The islanders

Charles Avery’s project began from a desire to find a space in which to express his ideas. Avery wanted to carry out his investigations into philosophy, literature and art within a focused yet large framework and found that the ‘space’ he desired rapidly took the shape of an island.Interview with Charles Avery

People and places of ‘The Island’:

“I first came to the Island at the end of the great kelp rush, although I was not aware of that at the time. On the contrary, I had sought out this strange land with a view to being its discoverer.” – Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction, 2005.

Avery wanted to carry out his investigations into philosophy, literature and art within a focused yet large framework.. The shape of the island may have been coincidental but it was also fortuitous; islands are physically contained, yet they also offer artists the opportunity to imagine infinite worlds within them.